A 2012 Associated Press survey found anti-black prejudice was up to 51 percent of Americans from 48 percent in 2008, Think Progress said. Colin Powell has talked openly about some of the prejudiced, racial talk that has been used to fight Obama’s election.

Some thought the reaction to the tweet was over the top. One man wrote, “There are people whose job it is to watch and scrutinize every political leader and group in America. This type of overreaction to a badly worded tweet that was meant to say something positive, but was taken to the extreme, is a good example of how the U.S. has become polarized into groups that spend all their time pointing fingers and not trying to work together.”